Our Book Spotlight this month comes from Michael S., one of our fantastic Dwyer Techs. He’s reading (well, listening to the audio version of) a book that’s just over a hundred years old and written by a man who’s still a household name today. The author is most famous for his paradigm-shattering science fiction, a skill sharpened by his non-fiction writing in history, politics, science, sociology, and more. Michael’s about halfway through but recommends it as a well-written look at the entire sweep of history (at least up until 1922). We hope you enjoy…
“A Short History of the World” by H.G. Wells
Synopsis from Powells.com
When H. G. Wells published this popular history of planet Earth in 1922, the highest off the surface humans had reached was seven miles, barely 37,000 feet; the best guess at the planet’s age was merely more than 2 billion years; the beginnings of organic life on Earth were still little understood. But with all the confidence of his immense genius and wide-ranging appreciation for all things scientific, Wells presents a readable, concise survey of the state of knowledge at his time about the planet and human presence upon it. Wells asks that you read this hefty 1922 work-adapted from his two-volume Outline of History, published in 1920-straightforwardly almost as a novel is read, and indeed, this story of Earth, from its very formation and the first appearance of homo sapiens through the Russian Revolution and the reconstruction after World War I, reads like the most thrilling adventure story ever told. Though it has been factually supplanted by scholarship that came after it, this remains an engaging history, a classic of science fact from one of the fathers of modern science fiction…
Synopsis from GoodReads
Of the more than one hundred books that H. G. Wells published in his lifetime, this is one of the most ambitious. Spanning the origins of the Earth to the outcome of World War I, A Short History of the World is an engrossing account of the evolution of life and the development of the human race. Wells brings his monumental learning and penetrating historical insight to bear on the Neolithic era, the rise of Judaism, the Golden Age of Athens, the life of Christ, the rise of Islam, the discovery of America, the Industrial Revolution, and a host of other subjects. Breathtaking in scope, this thought-provoking masterwork remains one of the most readable and rewarding of its kind…
